@broadwaybill Hispanic is an English word that, in its popular usage in the U.S., refers to those people from South and Central America as well as the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, Etc). It originally referred to people from Spain. Latino, or Latina in feminine form, is a Spanish word that generally refers to those from Latin America. The meanings of the two words have become somewhat muddled.

@freespeech01 It is true that some charities have very high overhead costs, but Komen is not known to be one of them. The foundation scores 62.22 out of 70 on Charity Navigator, which says Komen spends 7.6 percent of its expenses on administrative costs. Komen also devotes 9.8 percent of its expenses to fundraising costs. Both those figures are quire reasonable for a healthcare charity.

@TRUTHfull1 The overtime is not mandatory. Corrections officers in Union County are offered overtime through a rotating seniority system. Each officer decides how much of the offered overtime he or she wants to work.

@Wreckinghavoc Actually, it's a jail -- not a prison. Prisons hold people who have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to more than a year behind bars. Jails, for the most part, are used to hold persons who are waiting for trial and haven't been convicted of anything -- just charged. Jails also hold some who have been convicted of minor offenses and were sentenced to less than a year.

@FranklytheTrutch In New Jersey, our sunshine law is called the Open Public Records Act, or OPRA. We also have the common law, which is derived from thousands of court decisions and allows us to argue that releasing information is for "the greater good." I used both of those tools in requesting the video and incident reports this story mentions, but I was denied access. I've since filed an appeal with the county and am waiting to hear back.

@mike The overtime is not mandatory. Corrections officers in Union County are offered overtime through a rotating seniority system. Each officer decides how much of the offered overtime he or she wants to work.

@briefster Faella has traditionally been a registered Democrat and he was appointed by an all-Democrat freeholder board. It wasn't included because he's not an elected official, and his party isn't relevant to this story.

@c_programmer You make a good point. Certainly there are communities of much more modest income that experienced just as must flooding as Cranford. We've covered their struggles extensively.

But most folks in Cranford are middle class, not rich, and have experienced a tremendous loss. Some don't have flood insurance. Others say they're still fighting with their insurance companies to get payouts. Flooding can easily cause damage in the tens of thousands -- even hundreds of thousands -- of dollars range. That's a lot of money for most people, including those taking home $100,000 each year. Don't you think they, too, deserve some help from their neighbors?

@joisyjoe The law does allow school board service by those who have had their convictions expunged. Abdul-Haqq, however, does not qualify for that because he has more than two disorderly persons offenses on his record, in addition to the heroin conviction. He was convicted of at least four non-indictable offenses -- damage to property in 1965, public order crimes in 1967 and resisting arrest and disorderly conduct in 1981, according to law enforcement records.

He tried to get an expungement in 2001, receiving letters of support from numerous public officials -- including then-Plainfield Mayor Albert McWilliams and the city's police director -- but was denied. Some are now saying the expungement law, not the background check statute, needs to be changed.

@UncleRuckus Actually, the $105,000 job is a full-time position. The man who was acting health director for the first six months of the year worked 10 hours per week. He earned about $15,000 in that six months, according to Pelissier.

@Rampartstoo How do you figure? I was given a spreadsheet of county employees in February. At the time the document was prepared, the county had 2,880 employees on the payroll.

(And, before anyone asks, they were earning a combined salary just shy of $174 million. The four highest paid employees were all medical doctors, in various positions, followed by then county manager George Devanney.)

@fordtufff An important question -- one I should have answered in the story. Faella is earning an annual salary of $155,000, a bump of about $35,000 from his previous position. George Devanney, the immediate past county manager, earned an annual salary of $168,336.

@morenewjersey This is from a story he we ran in May, not long after Christiana's death:

That image of suffering haunts Christiana's father, Shakyieal Glenn.

"The way she died, it's just horrible," Glenn said. "She suffered. It's horrific."

Glenn and Ovilde divorced in 2005 after only a few years of marriage. It was an angry parting, with allegations of violence and wrongdoing on both sides. Glenn, a teacher's assistant with a bachelor's degree from Thomas Edison State College, said he hasn't seen his ex-wife or children since the divorce was finalized six years ago, a length of time he said he regrets.

@GeneralRant Hey, you make a good point. We felt silly driving in separate vehicles. A bunch of us had met in Linden for dinner, but had come from different places. We also had to go different places after the show, so we all took our cars with us. Maybe not the best idea.
Ryan

@NJMomma Thanks for your kind words. I must say, though, the real heroes are the police officers, firefighters and EMTs who rushed to the scene and do so on a daily or weekly basis.

In Jew Jersey, paramedics are a rare breed, numbering about 1,000. That leaves much of the emergency medical work to be done by basic EMTs, many of whom are volunteers. Their numbers are dwindling in New Jersey, much the same way the all-volunteer firehouse has become a rarity.

One of the first people on scene was an EMT who had been driving past the accident. He parked his car, grabbed his medical bag and immediately took charge. He identified victims with the most serious injuries and directed troopers about how they could best help in treating them. I didn't get his name, but my hat is off to that man and the many others who responded.

@Ishkabibbels That's correct. Traditionally, the festival has been free to attend. There is premium parking that's available for a price, but the county runs a shuttle from free off-site lots. There's usually a beer tent with domestic brews that go for the typical high-profile-event prices.
Ryan